Flashback Friday

I'm putting together a press printed book of Charlotte's alphabet book. In order to do that I have to change each of the pages just slightly so it fits the templates provided by the company. It is kind of a pain to go through each page, but it is fun to go back and look through the folders of pictures. It will give me one really, really nice copy of the book.

This morning I can across this picture in the "E is for Ear" folder. It was almost a year ago exactly. I didn't adjust the colors at all - her eyes were really that blue. Sigh. It goes by sooooo fast.

The "crack" in "graham cracker"

I'm convinced that graham crackers are laced with crack. Charlotte has become addicted to them.

In the morning, after calling for "Momma", I go in to get her and the first word out of her mouth is "craka?" When I picked her up from school yesterday, as soon as I put her in her carseat she asked, "House?". When I said, "Yes, we are going to the house", she asked "craka?" It is constantly on her mind and "craka?" is about every 10th word out of her mouth.

Saturday I did something bad. I gave Charlotte the dreaded, evil food, peanut butter. If you are a mom of a child under 2 you have been told that feeding your child peanuts is like feeding your child rat poison. With one dab of peanut butter, your child will immediately keel over. Now I know that is the case with some children, but we have no food allergies in our family, so I was pretty sure it would be safe. Also, I LOVE peanut butter. I don't think I would have made it through my pregnancy without it. I wanted Charlotte to have her first taste - and it adds one more meal to the lunch/dinner menu for her.

For snack on Saturday, I put some peanut butter on her beloved "crakas". She loved it - and didn't have any allergic reactions.

Park Time

Charlotte was a bit of a baby bear this weekend. She was so whiny and needy. She whined, "Mama" no less than 100 times/hour on Saturday. I can't blame her considering all of the changes she is being forced to make during the week and tried to give her lots of extra hugs and kisses.

Judd and I decided to play it low key this weekend. Give us all a chance to rest and regroup. We just spent time the three of us enjoying the absolutely gorgeous weather. I was shocked when I woke up to 60 degree weather both Saturday and Sunday morning. It was such a treat for August!

Since the weather was so nice we went to the park both Saturday and Sunday morning. We played hooky from church on Sunday. I just couldn't bear to take Charlotte to the church nursery and drop her off - I knew she would cry and cry. I have to do it during the week - I can't handle it on the weekends too! When things settle down with daycare, I know we'll get back into the swing of things.

A Good Day

It was a good day in the Davis household today.

Charlotte cried when she was dropped off this morning, but when I picked her up this afternoon she was sitting up at one of the tables eating a snack and drinking some water. She was so cute sitting there. She didn't see me immediately, so I could just watch her for a minute. She was taking it all in. Then one of the other little girls yelled, "A Mommy!" Charlotte turned around and ran for me.

She was in a much better mood this evening than previous evenings this week. She even ate a good dinner.

When I picked her up today I noticed that they were all drinking out of regular cups, not sippy cups. I asked if Charlotte was able to drink out of a regular cup, and the teacher replied that she was doing really well with it. Outside of her drinking bath water or pool water out of cups, we hadn't formally tried cup drinking at home - I just haven't wanted to clean up the mess. But tonight I poured a cup of milk for her to have with dinner - sans lid. She was so cute with it! She would very carefully pick it up with both hands and drink, then very carefully put it back down. I had no idea she could do it so well!

I apologize for the downer post yesterday. To say I have not been enjoying my job lately would be an understatement. So, to add the day care drama on top of it just adds to my funk. Thank you for all of the comments - they make my day!

But, there has been a nice silver lining to the week - Charlotte can expertly drink from a cup. Also, I'm not complaining about the early bed times she has been keeping this week. While I don't like her to be exhuasted - Judd and I have had a little extra time for ourselves.

The Transition

The transition to the Toddler 2 room for Charlotte is not going so well. She is still crying and clinging to our necks everyday when we drop her off. She is either sitting on a teacher's lap, being held by a teacher, or right next to a teacher with tears in her eyes each day when I pick her up. She has gone to this classroom 6 times now, but still isn't getting the hang of it.

The teachers seem loving and nice and I know that she is in very good care, but it is discouraging. They say that she usually has a pretty good day and eats well - I just am trusting that this is actually true.

Today when I picked her up we came home and she had attitude the entire evening. She didn't eat any dinner for the 3rd night and went to bed at 7pm (about 45 min earlier than usual).

I'm not sure what to do at this point. I want to keep her home and protect her and make her happy, but that's not the thing to do. The only thing to do is to continue to take her in hopes that she'll eventually get used to it. But, it is really hard.

I really want my Charlotte back. The one that is smiling and so happy to see me at the end of the day when I pick her up. Now I am handed a teary eyed, grouchy, tired mess.

I know that this will get better and she'll pull through. It always does and she always does. I am hoping that it happens sooner rather than later.

For now, I can't wait until the weekend.

Small Things

I was sent this little phrase in an email last night. I went through some pictures and found one from our Santa Rosa trip that I had overlooked at the time I edited. How could I have overlooked this one?

The Ritz at Amelia Island & A Winner!

Judd and I are back from our 3 night stay at the Ritz on Amelia Island. It was the perfect retreat. We splurged by staying at the Ritz, but it was SO worth it. The place is gorgeous and everyone is so nice. We read, slept, and ate then read, slept, and ate again. It was awesome.

Charlotte hung out with my parents and Judd's mom back at he house. She was the center of attention the entire time, and loved it. They had a good time until she got another stomach bug on Saturday night. She was pitiful when we got home, but perked up towards yesterday evening.

I missed Charlotte so much while we were away. But, I know that it is so important for Judd and I to have some time to reconnect. We feel refreshed and relaxed - that should last for at least a couple more days.

Also - the winner of the inkspotworkshop.com gift certificate is....Shaye! Just send me an email at carrieedavis [at] gmail [dot] com to collect your winnings!

300 on 30

I've never been more aware of how quickly time passes as I've been since the birth of Charlotte. I think it is the fact that I count down each month of her life, and time seems to pass more quickly when you are counting down the days.

Today, I am given another reminder of how quickly time passes - my 30th birthday. It is here. I don't really have any poetic reflections of my past 30 years. Only that I am pretty happy to be where I am in life. I have everything that I thought I'd have by this point in life - I'm married to my best friend, have a beautiful, healthy child, and a roof over my head. Really, turning 30 beats the alternative.

Also, today is my 300th post. That is hard to believe. So, since it is 300 on my 30th, I wanted to do a little giveaway to celebrate and thank all of my loyal blog followers.

Stacy from inkspotworkshop.com has graciously offered a $30 gift certificate to her site. All you have to do is go to her brand new website, look around, then come back here and leave a comment specifying the one item you liked the best. You have until Sunday (8/16) at midnight. I'll choose a random winner on Monday.

Transition to Toddler 2

Charlotte started her first day in the new Toddler 2 room today. It was a pretty traumatic drop off. Tears flowing from both mom and toddler. However, I called later in the day to find out that she had settled in just fine.

Probably the most dramatic part of the day was finding a flat tire on my car this afternoon when I was leaving to go pick Charlotte up. I was very frustrated because all I wanted to do was see her. As overly dramatic as it sounds, I just wanted to get to her - to make sure she made it through the day ok.

So, rather than spending the time to change the tire, I put running clothes on and got the stroller and ran to pick her up. (day care is about 2 miles away) I walked into the room and she was upset. She was wanting her "Momma." They told me that she started whining as other moms were picking their kids up. I felt so bad that I wasn't there sooner. She ran to me and I gave her a big hug.

Her teachers said her day went well. She actually slept on her mat for an hour at nap time - without her pacifier.

She went to bed pretty early tonight. It was a big day, she was tired. Let's hope that tomorrow's drop off will go OK. I can't believe how big my little baby girl is getting!

Mommy's helper

For the past few Saturday mornings, we have been lucky enough to have pancake mix in our pantry and blueberries in our fridge. So, it is becoming a little tradition to have pancakes on lazy Saturday mornings.

This past Saturday I decided it was time to see if Charlotte could help me out a little. I pulled the kitchen chair up to the counter and put her on the chair. She didn't know what was going on. She didn't want to stand, she wanted to sit on the chair. (I guess the 1,000 times I've told her to sit down on chairs actually paid off) Finally she understood that it was OK to break the rule this once. She put each blueberry in one by one, then mixed them into the batter until they were "all gone."

After the pancakes were done cooking, Judd, Charlotte, and I sat down to eat our pancakes together. It really doesn't get much better than that.

PS. I'm really starting to love the vintage look some photographers give their images. I've dabbled some and getting close to something I really like. I know some of you probably wish I'd just leave the pictures alone, but you'll have to get over it because I think you'll be seeing my take on this style more often now - at least for a little while.

PPS. Don't you love her right arm in this picture?

PPPS. I think I'm going to hit my 300th post on my 30th birthday. I'm thinking that just may be a great reason to have my first ever blog giveaway...stay tuned.

Pretend

Lately, Charlotte has started to actually pretend. Yesterday she spent a long time feeding her baby a bottle, then Cheerios, and then putting her "Ni Ni" (Night Night). Yesterday afternoon she disappeared. I looked for her and she was upstairs. She came out of her room carrying a diaper and said "Baby's?" So, then I helped her change the baby's diaper. She does need a little help learning how to carry the baby, though. Usually the poor baby is being carried by her feet.

Tears at the Office

It has been a rough week for me this week. Hence, no posts since Monday.

Judd was out of town Monday night, coming back late on Tuesday. Of course, Charlotte picks Monday night to wake up 2x during the night. During her 1am wake up, I realized that I wasn't feeling so hot. I was nauseous and so, so tired. I woke up Tuesday feeling the same way. I made it through the workday, and managed to make it through taking care of Charlotte that evening. (If this is what it could feel like with morning sickness with a 2nd child while you have a first, I'm not sure I want to chance having another!) I was crashed out on the couch when Judd got home on Tuesday, and went to bed at 9pm.

Woke up Wednesday feeling much, much better. Was in a pretty good mood. Then I got to work. I won't bore you with the details, but one of the applications I newly support is having major troubles. It all came crashing down on Wednesday. I was given some constructive criticism by one of my team leads and completely broke down in front of him. I HATE to cry at the office - I feel like it makes me look like a HUGE baby. As of today, I'm still dealing with the application, it is still not fixed, but at least I have things in a better perspective.

Yesterday daycare was closed for teacher work day. The new year begins Monday. My little baby will be going to the (drum roll please) TODDLER ROOM. I'm pretty freaked out about this. I pray it goes well. I've heard the teachers in that room are awesome, so I know she'll be in good hands.

One good thing that happened this week - Judd and I booked our vacation for the end of next week. My mom, dad, and Judd's mom will all be helping watch Charlotte at some point next week so Judd and I can escape for a couple of days. We are going to spend 3 pampered nights at the Ritz at Amelia Island. I can not wait. I've been there a couple of times and love that place - totally relaxing.

Enough of the pity party. Here are a couple of pictures to brighten up this post.

18 months

We had Charlotte's 18 month appointment today. She was feeling much better this morning. Judd and I have managed to escape the virus so far, let's hope that stays true.

Here are her stats:
Weight: 24 lbs 5 oz 50%
Height: 33" 75-90%
Head 18.5" 50-75%

I have a few more pictures from this series I took on Saturday. The stars aligned and she actually sat still for 5 minutes with a bow in her hair. I will try to post them tomorrow. After an hour long tantrum at dinner time coupled with another tantrum at bed time, the child has zapped me for tonight. I feel we have entered the terrible 2's and she's only 18 months.

We had a good weekend overall, but it definitely had its ups and downs.

Friday started off pretty rough. Charlotte had a horrible night Thursday night, then woke up for good at6:15. She cried at the drop of a hat the entire morning. I had some friends coming over later in the morning, I almost called and told them not to come. Around 10 we went to the store and she fell asleep on the way home. After a 15 min power nap she was much better.

Late Friday morning Allison & Marshall, Laurie & Olivia, and my friend Erin came over for a lunch/play date. I hadn't seen Laurie in 4 years! She was one of my college roommates. Olivia is her first child and is just a doll. Erin is another collegiate roommate. But, she and I go back a lot further than that. It was so much fun to hear about her escapades as a 30 something single woman. And, as always, it was great to see Allison and Marshall.

Saturday evening we had dinner with Dave, Erin, and the girls. We kept Charlotte up until 9:30 PM because she was being such a good girl. At one point, after dinner, she spit up a little bit. We cleaned it up and didn't think much of it. She had A LOT to eat, so I figured that maybe she just ate too much.

It was Judd's night last night to get up with her. He got up with her about 4:45 and I heard, "CARRIE - I NEED YOUR HELP!" I went in there to find vomit all her bed. I got her out and cleaned her up while Judd got her bed cleaned up. He went back to bed and I rocked her back to sleep. About 15 minutes into the rocking she sat up and spewed all OVER the both of us. It was my turn, "JUDD - I NEED YOUR HELP - NOW!" I ran to the bathroom and stripped Charlotte down. Judd got a new shirt for me. I gave her a bath.

I laid down in the guest room with Charlotte and she fell back asleep for an hour or so. She ended up throwing up 2 more times this morning. We aren't sure what was wrong - I guess just a little virus. She never had a fever. It could have been something she ate, but she ate everything we did and no one else is sick. We have her 18 month appointment tomorrow, so we'll see what they say. She seems to be feeling much better tonight. She took a 3.5 hour nap this afternoon and ate a little dinner. Keep your fingers crossed that tonight goes well! I think Judd and I are both praying that we don't get it. He has to travel tomorrow and nothing would be worse than a stomach virus on the plane - except maybe having a stomach virus and having to care for a baby by yourself!

Breakfast

Blueberry pancakes on Saturday morning. Life is good.